Washington, Showing Cohesiveness, Beats USC Inside and Out

Washington’s basketball team has always had the pieces. Now, they’re starting to fit together.

“Just at the right time,” Washington Coach Andy Russo said Saturday after the Huskies scored a 91-75 victory over USC at Hec Edmundson Pavilion to raise their record to 8-7 overall and 3-1 in the Pacific 10.

USC dropped to 6-7 and 1-3.

Since losing at Cal by two points, the Huskies have also won conference games over Stanford and UCLA to put together a three-game winning streak.

Thursday night, Washington beat UCLA by 25 points.

“I definitely think these games have given us a lift,” Russo said. “The personality and the chemistry of this team are starting to come together.”

Washington is the only team in the league with a 7-foot center, and Chris Welp is as talented as he is tall. Senior forward Paul Fortier is one of the best in the league, and 6-4 senior Shag Williams, who has moved from guard to forward, is carrying the rebounding load. Junior guard Clay Damon is a returning starter, but he has yet to get his game together this season.

Greg Hill, a 6-1 guard who transferred to Washington from El Camino College, is turning out to be the difference for the Huskies.

Against USC, Hill had 20 points, almost all from long range. It was Hill’s outside shooting that gave Washington its first breakaway scoring streak on a series of quick, outside shots. He did it again in the second half, putting together steals and quick jumpers and turning a 14-point game into a 20-point game. (He had done the same thing against UCLA.)

As USC Coach Stan Morrison said, “Hill just shot the lights out. . . . Most teams that are power teams, like Washington is, will get the ball inside and beat you there. Fortier does a good job inside. He knows where Welp is at all times, and Welp shoots the ball well.

“But Washington really hurts you because, besides the inside game, they have the balance of also having the perimeter shooting.

“This team has the balance to be a very, very good team.”

But the game Saturday between the Huskies and the Trojans certainly was not a showcase effort.

The elbows were flying all afternoon, despite the whistles that kept interrupting the game. Washington’s Steve Evenson ended up with a bloody nose.

There were also two technical fouls, both on USC. One was on Morrison and the other on reserve Rich Grande.

Morrison said he had expected Washington to play an aggressive, physical game, but he thought it got out of hand a couple of times.

USC’s freshman forward, Tom Lewis, said: “Maybe they thought, since we’re a younger team, that they could get physical and make us back off.”

And when the Trojans didn’t back off?

Lewis smiled and said: “I guess that’s when the friction began.”

USC had 33 turnovers (18 in the first half) to 18 for the Huskies.

Morrison said: “I can’t figure out how we were outrebounded (14-11) and had 18 turnovers and were still down by only six points at halftime.”

Washington led by as many as 14 points with less than three minutes remaining in the first half.

Lewis was on the bench with three fouls at that time, and forward Derrick Dowell was struggling through the worst half of one of his worst games. Dowell finished the first half with 2 points, 3 rebounds and 4 turnovers.

Reserve forward Hank Gathers narrowed the gap for the Trojans with three straight jump shots from short range, and reserve guard Bo Kimble cut the margin to six points when his 20-footer just beat the halftime buzzer to send the Trojans to the locker room with a 38-32 deficit.

It was the same at the end of the second half, with the Trojan bench outplaying the Husky bench.

When both coaches started to pull out their starters with just less than four minutes left in the game, Washington was leading, 82-62.

USC’s reserves cut that margin to 13 points a couple of times.

Russo said: “We have a good starting lineup, but we’re not real deep. We have trouble when we play on the road and start having foul trouble.”

That’s not as much of a problem at home.

The road through the Pac-10 is not an easy one. Ask the Trojans, who spent all day Friday getting to Seattle from Pullman.

The Trojans went by bus to the Spokane Airport, where the fog had everything grounded. At 11:30 in the morning, they embarked upon a bus trip across Washington that included stops for lunch at Ritzville and at Ellensburg for a practice at Central Washington State College, putting them in Seattle at 9:30 Friday night.

Lewis said: “That didn’t have anything to do with the way we played today. It was just an inconvenience.”

The Trojans problems Saturday did seem to be of their own doing.

Morrison said: “I liked the way we battled. I liked the way we played hard. But I didn’t think we played with a lot of intelligence and with the kind of decision-making you need to beat a good team like Washington.

“I do think they’re a very good team. I’m impressed.”